Ipecac Recordings
3.5 out of 5
3.5 out of 5
Charles Hamilton has beef? Kanye West telling Willie Dee to eat a dick
by dating a bald headed video girl? Chris Brown is sorry? Dalek don't
give a fuck.
Previous reviewers have complained that Gutter Tactics, the freshly minted seventh LP from the Jersey collective, sounds muddy; that MC Dalek's rhymes are buried underneath Octopus' overwhelming production, his blasts of noise. Some question the anger of the lyrical content, wondering if we're ready to bring up Reverend Jeremiah Wright again ("Blessed Are They Who Bash Your Children's Heads Against A Rock" is comprised mostly of an infamous Wright sample). Others don't dig that Dalek don't greet Barack Obama with open arms.
These are the reasons I love this record. Dalek are their own thing, and even though they are firmly grounded in hip-hop, they exist for another world.
When I spoke to Dalek for an article last year, they commented that they like a consistent, "top-to-bottom" album sound. This is still true. On the surface, Octopus' production resembles his shoegaze/noise experiments on Absence, but there are important differences. Though definitely noisy, the sonic manipulations do not explode as they did previously, but throughout the record, they come damn close. Combined with MC Dalek's pessimistic lyrics, the tensions are relentless. "Blessed" pretty much admitted from the get-go subtlety is not Dalek's game anyway. And, really, that's all you need to know.
Blesses are Dalek, who bash your head against a rock.
- Andy O'Connor
Previous reviewers have complained that Gutter Tactics, the freshly minted seventh LP from the Jersey collective, sounds muddy; that MC Dalek's rhymes are buried underneath Octopus' overwhelming production, his blasts of noise. Some question the anger of the lyrical content, wondering if we're ready to bring up Reverend Jeremiah Wright again ("Blessed Are They Who Bash Your Children's Heads Against A Rock" is comprised mostly of an infamous Wright sample). Others don't dig that Dalek don't greet Barack Obama with open arms.
These are the reasons I love this record. Dalek are their own thing, and even though they are firmly grounded in hip-hop, they exist for another world.
When I spoke to Dalek for an article last year, they commented that they like a consistent, "top-to-bottom" album sound. This is still true. On the surface, Octopus' production resembles his shoegaze/noise experiments on Absence, but there are important differences. Though definitely noisy, the sonic manipulations do not explode as they did previously, but throughout the record, they come damn close. Combined with MC Dalek's pessimistic lyrics, the tensions are relentless. "Blessed" pretty much admitted from the get-go subtlety is not Dalek's game anyway. And, really, that's all you need to know.
Blesses are Dalek, who bash your head against a rock.
- Andy O'Connor
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